I've heard that the previous edition mucked up on a few levels, but this one looks strong to me. I can't vouch for everything in it, obviously, but I know the editors worked hard to make it fair vis-a-vis "the conflict" and to organize it well. I had input only on certain sections but tried to make my influence count!

For those of you curious to know which parts were written by moi, my sections are thusly:

Page 10: the section on "Israel and Her Neighbors"

Pages 24 and 25: I wrote a few paragraphs and sentences interspersed throughout. They seem to have taken a piece that I wrote and merged it with a piece by someone else.

Page 26: the section on "Judaism in Israel" (part of a much longer piece I wrote about Israeli demographics; they cut most of it due to space issues, it appears, or re-attached pieces of it to pages 24-25.)

Pages 180-184: the entire feature on Masada (whoohoo)

Pages 195 - 198: this entire section about the Dead Sea (whoohoo)

Buy the book so that they will see there is an interest and will make a new edition soon and hire me again. Also feel free to write to Fodor's telling them how much you loved any or all of the above pieces by me.